Pictures from yesterday

Notice that this most recent photo is of a 2007 Shelby GT. Ours, pictured at top, is a 2008 Shelby GT. You'll notice subtle differences.

Unlike the other vehicles pictured, this one was unlocked and I was able to snap a photo of the interior, as well as sit in it. (not pictured: somewhat unique orange/blue striped Cooper S next to pictured vehicle. It was a manual, so I would have preferred it be unlocked. It wasn't.)

Regrettably, this example was an automatic transmission. Hard, uncomfortable seats, and was somewhat claustrophobia-inducing for me, even in extended Clubman format. In a horrifying turn of events, the prospective car purchaser of the family liked the interior, stating "it's kind of cool, in a steampunk-ish kind of way!". I don't get it. Central speedo? Really? Oh wait... nevermind.

Moving on...

This one was locked also.

We also saw a pristine Mercury Marauder, a Grabber Blue 2010 Mustang GT (the owner liked our admiration very much), a Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG, an MB GL450 (sorry H_H! Pictures next time, I promise!), a Toyota Supra Turbo, and several restorodded and very nice Fox-body Mustangs. Good day.

Just a heads up

I will be somewhat busy for a few days, so I may not post for a little while.

That's all.

Seriously.

Okay, fine. I'll add something else so this is worthwhile:

The Cobalt.

No, not THIS cobalt:

THIS Cobalt:

Not STRICTLY that one, but close enough. :-)

Our local (slightly smaller) dealer had a yellow Cobalt LS XFE 2-door a while back. Since I'm a fan of the traditional manual transmission, and will almost never pass up the chance to use one, and I knew the XFE had a very high take rate for the manual, I decided to have a look. Sure enough, it was standard!

So, I got in. Now, the handbrake for those cars is actually behind the driver, and to see it you have to be looking for it. I didn't notice that the handbrake was off in this particular example. I put the clutch in (if you have a mechanical inclination, you can see where this is going), and rowed through the gears. Pleasantly surprised by the clarity of the transmission and the overall not-so-nastiness of the interior (I had been led to believe by reviews that the interior was able to cause mirrors to break if you had one inside the vehicle), I stuck it in neutral and leaned back in the seat to ponder the possibility that I had been misled all my life by the automotive press.

Soon, I experienced a very unfamiliar sensation. You know how typically, when a car is moving, the engine is running, the car is in gear, and your foot is on the throttle? None of those things applied here, and yet I felt that the car was... moving. 

I looked over the hood. 

I had moved forward.

Without wanting to.

Normally, that wouldn't be such a bad thing, except this particular vehicle was parked on an incline. Facing the street. Which, at that time, was quite busy.

Did I mention that the Cobalt didn't get such great side-impact crash test scores? I was about to find out firsthand just how realistic those tests were.

Suddenly, I felt myself slamming on the brake and clutch pedals simultaneously, putting the car in reverse, and yanking the handbrake up. My heart just about leapt out of my chest, and I sat there, shaking. (I left the clutch in, which was rather foolish sense that meant my putting the car in gear was worthless)

A couple of salesmen and my mom ran over to investigate Christine's great-grandson having manifested his ancestry for the first time, while I kept my emotions bottled up until they opened the driver's door.

"THE HANDBRAKE WASN'T ON! THE HANDBRAKE WASN'T ON!"

I was persuaded after about 30 seconds to let off the brake and clutch, which caused the car to jerk forward and my heart to skip another couple beats. Finally, I trusted the car to the parking brake and shakily climbed out.

Of course, the car was on the sidewalk now, so I joined the sales guys in pushing it back up, during which time they accidentally got the door stuck open from banging it against a telephone pole. After that, one of the sales guys had the audacity to say "Good car, though."

That did not please me, and I didn't calm down for quite a while afterward, even after finding out that a car I had previously taken to be an MGB was, in fact, an Alfa Romeo Spider.

As a result of this event, I always check the parking brakes in vehicles I sit in.

The multiple morals of the story?

1: Most of the time, you drive the car. This Cobalt was evidently an import from Soviet Russia, because it drove me.

2: Sometimes, the dealership will do ANYTHING to get your attention squarely on the car.

3: Always check the parking brake. Always.

4: When the automotive press tells you a car is lousy, they're usually right.

That's it for me. Has anyone else had just dandy experiences with brakes and the lack thereof?

BIG DEALER! WOO!

You know that "big dealer" that I mentioned on the MBs? Well, despite the TERRIBLE and NASTY weather that prohibited the use of cameras (I'm sorry. Next time when there's decent weather, I'll take pictures. I promise), I went there AND still got to sit in stuff! Wahoo!

First up: a Saturn Sky automatic. Nice interior, but a bit small for the rather-tallish BBC. He prefers the Pontiac Solstice manual that he sat in before.

Next: a BMW Z4 automatic. Yuck. Interior was DREADFUL. Cold and uninviting. Seats were somewhat uncomfortable, and cramped also. Sat on the seat instead of in it, which is a bad thing for a small roadster. It was a 3.0si, so maybe if I drove it I'd have a better opinion? Hmm...

Next: a Chrysler Crossfire manual. Although I couldn't figure the reverse lockout, it still shifted nicely. Clutch was pretty good also. Interior, as per its mid-2000s Chryslerness, was somewhat nasty, but better than the 300C that I'm not going to do a writeup on. Unlike the other small cars I sat in, I didn't feel cramped in this one.

Next: a 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX STi sedan manual. Had some ill-advised mods on it, not least including less-than-tasteful decals and a stiff clutch. The problem was that it was a short clutch, but stiff. Hmm. Smelled bad also. Doors felt tinny and unsubstantial. As I exited the vehicle, I said "Bad Subaru! Bad!"

Next: a Hyundai Tiburon GS manual. The most regrettable manual transmission I've ever shifted, except for a Toyota Matrix and a Scion xB. Clutch was sloppy and long, and the shifter was balky and ridiculously high-effort for what it was. Not such a slick car.

Next: a 1989 Corvette automatic. OK, so this one was locked, but I still got to look at it! Hehe... :(

Next: a 2008 Mercedes-Benz SLK 280 auto. Nice interior, but those of slighter stature might have trouble keeping a constant throttle depression. Had a manual mode to the auto which was nice.

Next: a Nissan 350Z manual. Now we're talking! After such a string of lousy cars, this was refreshing. Nice shifter, nice clutch, didn't feel cramped... this one's on my short list.

Next: a Nissan 370Z manual. Brilliant! I loved it. All the roadstery goodness of the 350Z, but more refined.

Next: a Mazda RX-8 manual. Sublime clutch, smooth shifting action with well-defined gates, (hey Tiburon! Take a lesson from this thing!), nice interior... horrendous gas mileage. Urgh. Oh well.

Next: a Mitsubishi Eclipse GT V6 manual. Had fairly well defined gates, but this particular example had a massive subwoofer mounted in between the rear seats. I haven't been in very many Eclipses, so I don't know if that's stock or not, but it looked ridiculous.

Last, all kinds of 05-09 Mustangs, autos and manuals. Now, we own one of these, but I'm not allowed to sit in the driver's seat, much less use the clutch and shifter on ours, because of a prior incident. (will relate that later) These cars make me happy every time I sit in one. LOVE THE HECK OUT OF THEM.

Will continue with prior cars in next post.

Shelby cruises again!

Well, the Shelby finally came out of hibernation for the winter, and was given a good run out on the highway. Good times. Will post pictures and video as soon as I get them uploaded and edited.

Pictures at last!

BBC finally got around to opening up his image-editing software, and altered his photos to make them postable. And that's what these are. Have fun!

EDIT: BBC completely forgot his camera, and just in time to miss a yellow Chevrolet Corvette C6 and a Model A-ish type thing! Arg. I have prior pictures of them both, so I'll dig those up too.

Good weather!

Well, the Dustpocalypse up here has finally ended (moon dust is a pain to clean off of a car, ya know?), and the car companies you Earthlings are content with were able to resume importing their vehicles up here. It really warms my heart that they do that, especially because 1) it's expensive to ship stuff into space (why do you think governments take advantage of other space missions to take things to the space station?), and 2) they have to fly up here without the spy satellites noticing. That's not easy, and I know this because I used to work as a pilot for one of said lunar shipping companies. Lucrative business, but slightly highly illegal: here's a picture of one of the times that I got caught on camera.

NOT GOOD!

Anyway, this post will later be expanded with photos of BBC's vehicle that he cleaned off post-dust storm.

Offical Non-Paid Endorsement from BBC...

...brought to you by Dodge. I kid, I kid.

That said, based on my recent encounter with an orange 2011 Charger R/T (pictures coming, hopefully), I can tell you that it's definitely a far better car than the previous generation. Here's a review:

"The greasy, hard and cheap plastic that filled the old Charger's cabin has been banished in place of excellent soft touch stuff. The metal surrounding the vents and navigation screen is actually metal (aluminum). The gauges look better, the leather feels better -- even the steering wheel is a big step up in quality. Speaking of movin' on up, the Garmin-based 8.4 inch navigation screen/infotainment unit is a vast improvement over the nasty old system. Summary, returning Charger customers will be stunned at how improved this interior is."

I think MT liked it!

BBC's forgetfulness manifests itself again

And he forgets to inform you all that if any of you frequent YouTube, you should head over right now and...

No, not YET! Wait till I've finished talking. If you left before I finished, then how'd y'all know what to do?

OK, thanks. Have a seat. Now, as I was saying -

No, it's not cumulative evidence. Leave me alone, and please don't strike my testimony from the record. Thanks.

In any event, go over to YouTube and check out Car and Driver's Name That Exhaust Note feature. It's fun to try to guess what each week's car is (BBC is usually wrong, except for the time they used the Ferrari 458 Italia. BBC guessed that one right away). Plus, it's nice for a dull day, especially when the shuttle mission has departed and BBC has the whole base to himself, at which point he plays the Ferrari F430 recording over our 50,000 watt PA system at full volume.

BBC then has to pay for blown speakers out of his salary, and that's not so much fun. Then again, BBC was always something of a "one cookie now instead of two cookies later" kind of person. He also never finishes anyth

On exhaust...

Cars can be nice when stock:



But sometimes, mods can be nice too, even better:



To make the point further:





EDIT: Found this, which is a better example of a stockish Gallardo than the above acceleration run. Doesn't really matter, though, as they all sound good.

And there is quite simply no reason not to listen to this last one, even though I'm not providing a stock counterpart:

STEELERS!

So, even though those dastardly Packers won the Super Bowl, Pittsburgh still really wins due to the simple fact that Green Bay's coach is from Pittsburgh! AHAHAHAHAHAHA..... that's funny.

BBC, who is very tired, is now retiring for the night.

No, I'm not dead.

The Maelstrom almost had me for a minute there, but once that Stromling Ape got a taste of EFBOL he'd had enough, and the battle was won.

(/LEGO Universe references)

Regardless, I am quite alive, just had a lot of work to do. In the meantime until I can get a meaningful post put together, here's a couple things for everyone to enjoy:

Porsches!

Who says that just because something is old doesn't mean it's awesome?

Until I can get my other favorite road course race back, here's this one.

This is how I like my racing videos.

You'll notice that none of these videos involve people commenting and saying stupid stuff during the videos that takes away from the glorious noises the cars are making. 

Of course...

Don't deny you've been looking for the link to this game.

You'll also notice that unlike last time, I haven't embedded the videos, instead providing links. The reason for this is that I used to have a video of Bruce Canepa driving a 1969 Boss 302 Trans-Am race car against a Camaro and Challenger from the same era at Laguna Seca. I really loved that video, but recently the uploader made it a private video, so I can't watch it anymore, and I had to remove the code. Mr. Uploader, if you're reading this, please invite BBCoftheCDS to see your Trans-Am video... please?